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South Africa

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We try.... we grind. We cry .... despair. ... each day a plea..... God help us this world's aflame - Humanity rots before our eyes We pray We plead We despair hope flickers falters falters fades We try Grind cry despair Lord, exterminate this scourge. (C) Jambiya "The power of words".

Joseph

Zimbabwe 1984 - I was a young girl who had a relatively easy and privileged upbringing in a middle class suburb in South Africa. We walked into a water crises - a system shocker. We bathed in each others water - whites, blacks, Indian. The team. We represented various nations of the world - the Zimbabwian rifles did not enjoy our presence - I was introduced to political strife as one regime positioned itself to overthrow another. It was my introduction to war outside of my own countries borders. We were hated and I didn't understand why, because our message was one of love. I sat with a "man-servant" (as they were called then), and heard his dry mouthed anxiety for the future - bread and butter; His next job; unwittingly a victim of a socio-economic alcatraz. A little blonde-haired girl crawled onto my lap and asked why I had such curly hair - Amongst my black sisters my hair was "white". Indians embraced me more because they saw my gra

Spineless Fathers and Poachers

When I come face to face with desolation; naked trauma caused by absent fathers my head and heart screams - it screams in anger and frustration - I want to use uninvented expletives because my pen must translate the pain and anger your absence has caused. Hollow Contemptible candy ass impotent grey matter, wretched scrotum sac. Preachers, pastors ministers I don't care how called you are - tend to your children - and no! Not the ones who call you "papa or daddy" and give you a spiritual ego-rise and a backstroke; but the ones you fathered with your blood. Mr executive, effervescent maestro  jelly bean businessman or trying tycoon You are a dangerous speciman of seminal vesicles when finance replaces your footprint. You leave broken children wallowing in torment and affliction; craving affirmation and value; prey for poachers. I'm sick and tired of crying with those who mourn your absence yet not your death. your rejection of your own would give

Humility

 A Nigerian Pastor We have a human instinct to curry favour with "big, popular names", we support and engage them - we use our energies to be where they are and to get them to where we are - we desire the connection. Often in doing so we miss the truly big names who are silently going about the business they've been called to do. We converse but little do we realise where theyve been, what they've done, what they're doing and how God will use them to take us closer to His purpose. We have no idea of the greats amongst us. It makes me think of a few years ago, when a Nigerian pastor treated me like a princess and carried my bags, served me tea - booked me /us into a hotel - he wanted to spoil us missionaries -   he was so humble,  simply dressed, humorous and soft spoken; unassuming - then I heard the receptionist address him, "welcome Dr.......".  The pastor was a physicist - a well known genius 😃 of course, that would not have registered in

8 Forked Serpent

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you - the Jack in the beanstalk who strangles, rapes and exterminates mankind - To love as Christ loves us; this is our highest mandate. In my despairing war and cry, I mourn, "What kind of justice God is this to love  an animal that plunders and butchers; that chops the head from a human frame. How do we love a Chimera who gobbles the meal of the famished; the Orochi who wears the labour of the people as embroided gowns; then parades her adornment of gold and precious stones; the warlock that mangles then exanguinates the victims - how can we be asked to show mercy to a beast who preys on the vulnerabilities of the defenceless. God if this love is at all possible please fill us now so that we may live the remainder of our lives in peace, even if now is then - let the nights rest set in for our hearts love not them whose deeds we loathe - and faces we spit on. What bittersweet love is this that you sho

My Prayer

My prayer. .. Another Tuck Magazine insert. ... poets in unity - http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/11/03/zimbabwe-we-want-poetry-campaign-10/ #jambiya #1000poetsforpeace - Zimbabwe #tuckmagazine

Colours

I am intrigued - struck by waves of emotion when he speaks her name to me. I feel the warmth of tenderness draped around his bulk. These are the re-collections of a man. Who would consider that inside my tent of dreams lay a little boy, smelling of Lizzy's scent and fragranced cream - As I wander across to the living-room I see flashes of yester-year; pictures of Ray with arms spread wide reaching for the boy standing by my side; The vulnerability of a man is hard to detect until he speaks of a woman he dearly respects, heat of affections grit his voice with recalls of Lizzy's embrace. The boy and the man The morning sky rains soft gentle spots pancaked by gusts of wind. Vincent's eyes are drawn from the soft slosh on the sill as he stares from his home on the hill. The clip clop of the grandfather clock raises reveries of a time long ago, when the aroma of freshly baked scones offered comfort from winters’ cold; I swipe at the p

A City Under Siege

Vusi Thembekwayo wisely said, "nothing is guaranteed it is gifted". Why then do leaders control earth's gifts - water and vegetation; destroy what is sown by working hands and fertilized by soil. They lord over springs nurtured in stone The people blame the H20 crises and famine on political manipulation and lies - human maintenance and monocracy - perhaps they are right, Yet their bloated egos and guzzling rob the poor of each drop by which they live. "Damn the bloody law", they shout. Conspiracy theories take precedence, driven by an insatiable hunger for justice, views on land repartition; the rights of the Khoi and San. Global warming, population explosions and no rains but to hell with the white man who caused Africa's pain - May the black man rot as he insists brown must be black. Blame government for gangsterism and depravity - while the inhumane kill and plunder. Damned apartheid that stripped Africa's sparkle